Some computing devices can include a base portion that includes a physical keyboard and a display portion that includes a large display screen. The base portion and the display portion can be coupled to each other, for example, by a hinge. The keyboard can be used by a human to provide input to the device, and the input may be processed to cause certain commands to be executed by the device and to cause changes to occur on the display screen.
In some computing devices that include a display portion and a base portion, the display screen can include a touch screen interface and it may be possible to disable the physical keyboard in the base portion and use touch screen interface to provide input to the device. Such devices, which can be known as convertible devices, can be operated in different modes, in which a plane of the base portion and a plane of the display portion are arranged oriented differently relative to each other. For example, when the plane of the display portion of the plane of the base portion are not parallel to each other, the device may be operated in a “laptop mode” in which the physical keyboard of the base portion is enabled to receive human input, and when the plane of the display portion of the plane of the base portion are parallel to, or close to parallel to, each other, the device may be operated in a “tablet mode mode” in which the physical keyboard of the base portion is disabled from receiving human input.
In some convertible devices, the base portion and the laptop portion can be coupled to each other by a hinge, and the display portion can be rotated about the hinge relative to the base portion by 360 degrees, or at least close to 360 degrees. In such a case, the device may be operated in a laptop mode when the display portion is rotated relative to the base portion by up to a predetermined angle (e.g., 170 degrees), and the device may be operated in a tablet mode when the display portion is rotated relative to the base portion beyond the predetermined angle. In some convertible devices, the base portion and the laptop portion can be detachably coupled to each other (e.g., by one or more mechanisms that hold the display portion relative to the base portion in a laptop mode orientation and that hold the display portion relative to the base portion in a tablet mode orientation. For example, the display portion may be snap-fit coupled to the base portion in laptop mode orientation, and then detached from the base portion and again snap-fit coupled to the base portion, but in a tablet mode orientation.
Computing devices can exist in different power states. For example, a computing device can exist in an OFF, or powered-down, state and in a non-OFF or powered-on state. In addition, a computing device can exist in a low-power sleep state (also known as a suspend state), in which the power drawn by certain components (e.g., a display screen, a main processor, various sensors (e.g., a global positioning sensor) can be sharply reduced. While in a low-power sleep mode, a pervious operating state of the computing device can be preserved (e.g., in volatile memory 109a (e.g., RAM) and/or in non-volatile memory 109b (e.g., flash memory or disk memory)), and then when the device is woken from the low-power sleep state, the previous state of the device can be restored based on the information that was written to memory. Furthermore, a computing device can be placed into a locked screen state, in which a previous state of the device is preserved and where the device can be operated receive input from a human to unlock the screen, but little or nothing more. For example, while the device is in the locked screen state, a user may not be able to control programs executing on the device other than the program that unlocks the screen, or the user may not be able to enter input to cause any changes to occur on the display other than changes related to unlocking the screen.
A computing device can include one or more physical buttons to change the operating state of the computing device. For example, a computing device can include a first physical button (e.g., an ON/OFF button) to change the state of the device between an OFF state and a non-OFF state, and the device can include a second physical button (e.g., a suspend button) to place the device into a low-power state sleep state.